We got a job at a hostel

We are still in valdivia. Our first night we fell asleep at 7pm, exhausted from the weeks of building in santa barbara. When we woke up and went to eat breakfast I started a conversation with one of the 25 year old owners about how she started the hostel. It was an old dilapidated mansion, had been a home, and discotec. Rent was cheap, so they began to repair everything and now it is this beautiful giant youth hostel. Its still a little dilapidated, but it adds to the bohemian charm. I mentioned to the owner that Jameson is a handyman and if she needed any help, maybe we could do some type of exchange. "We need some holes in our roof patched up". And just like that, we became employees.

I've been working with guests, check in and reservations. Also, we make breakfast in the morning, eggs, toast, fruit, coffee. Today Jameson spent 4 hours unloading firewood with a bunch of macho chilean men. They made him go to the store and buy them liters of cheap beer that they could drink while they work. We can tell that Jamesons spanish is coming along because he understood when the guys called him a "gringo estupido" and he fired back with "si, soy gringo pero no soy estupido" which means " yes, I'm a gringo, but I'm not stupid".

Afterwards the women we are working for invited the wood hauling men to eat lunch with us and it was a really great experience, refreshing, to eat with the people that were providing a service for us. The chilean men even paid Jameson 5.000 pesos for his help, and made jokes about how he was a surprisingly good worker.

He earned their respect in the end and they even offered him a job working with them and said at night they would take him to the place where he could use their company hooker.

He declined.

We've decided to stay at the hostel for a week or more. Its a good learning experience and the people are fantastic (especially the owners but the guests too).

-Laney